


Intoxicated

by kirasometimes



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Slice of Life, everyone is happy and booker is there without explanation except that i love him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-18
Updated: 2020-08-18
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:48:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25980004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kirasometimes/pseuds/kirasometimes
Summary: “He’s drunk,” Nile says with wonder. “Nicky is actually drunk.”“He is,” Andy agrees, handing her a few grapes as Nile sits quietly in vain for Andy to elaborate. She doesn’t. Nile knew she wouldn’t and if she’d been thinking clearly, she wouldn’t even have waited in the first place. Andy never offered more information than was needed and this seemed as if none was required.Well Nile is not 6000 years old, has never seen anything like this, and damn it, she has questions.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 64
Kudos: 1149





	Intoxicated

Nicky is drunk. 

Nile has been with them for just under a year and she has seen some miraculous, marvelous, horrifying, painful things. But she has never seen this. 

They are in a very large penthouse suite in a hotel in Venice waiting for Booker to arrive and loud Italian music from an expensive radio echoes around the main room. And still, somehow, Nicky is louder as he sings along. His voice is deep and rich and _slurred_. Slurred with laughter and smiles and drink. Even Joe, who always laughs loudest and smiles brightest, is no match for Nicky’s exuberance. 

They dance together, Joe’s arm lifted as Nicky honest to God twirls under the arc. His hip is caught and they sway together for a moment before Nicky spins away again. Joe chases him, bringing Nicky close to his chest, heads knocking ungracefully as they laugh together. In the hands that aren’t on each other, they both hold a bottle of wine. 

Nile can’t help but stare.

“What’s wrong with him?” Nile asks when Andy emerges from the kitchen. She’s holding a vine of grapes, inspecting them as if fruit was the most interesting thing in the room. Andy sits on the couch next to Nile and stretches her long legs to rest on the coffee table. 

“What do you mean?” Andy replies without looking up from her food, plucking a particularly large green grape from the bunch and popping it into her mouth. 

Nile scoffs. It’s this that catches Andy’s attention and Nile takes the opportunity to gesture wildly towards Joe and Nicky. The song has changed to something even faster, a poppy beat that Nile would have never believed Nicky could keep if she wasn’t now seeing it with her own eyes.

Andy stares speculatively at the men for a few moments, then looks back at Nile. “What?” she asks again. 

“Nicky!” Nile practically sputters, her finger pointing almost accusingly.

Andy looks once more and then, very slowly, a smile unfolds from her lips. “Ah,” she finally says with a rare affection in her words. “You have never known him like this.”

“He’s drunk,” Nile says with wonder. “Nicky is actually drunk.”

“He is,” Andy agrees, handing her a few grapes as Nile sits quietly in vain for Andy to elaborate. She doesn’t. Nile knew she wouldn’t and if she’d been thinking clearly, she wouldn’t even have waited in the first place. Andy never offered more information than was needed and this seemed as if none was required. 

Well Nile is not 6000 years old, has never seen anything like this, and damn it, she has questions. 

“How much did he have to drink if it’s affecting him like this?” Nile asks finally.

“A lot,” Andy replies, frustratingly succinct. It must have shown on Nile’s sour face because Andy sighed gently, catching her eye with hidden amusement. “More than me.”

Nile blinks. Then blinks again. She’s seen Andy chug down an entire bottle of vodka and remain mostly coherent. When they’d first met, it was even more. Her only limit now was a newly mortal body relearning how it was supposed to function. If Nicky has to drink more than Andy...

“Shit,” she says to herself as Andy actually laughs at her. 

The sound catches Joe’s attention and he releases his grip on Nicky’s hips to reach out to the women on the couch. Nicky is only a second behind, pausing only to take a drink from his bottle before he sets it on the table in front of Andy’s feet.

“Dance!” Joe demands and his fingers wrap around Andy’s wrists. She tries to pull them back, her grapes falling to the couch in her resistance but Joe is just that much more determined in his quest. “Andromache of Scythia, you are much too young and much too beautiful to sit out of this dance with me.”

“I have not been young in a long time,” Andy retorts. Her feet push against Joe’s knees weakly before she gives in, allowing herself to be pulled up and swept away in a flourishing spin with Joe.

And Nicky is looking at Nile, his hand outstretched expectantly. 

“Nile, would you do me the honor?” Nicky says with a charm he must have learned from Joe and Nile finds herself holding his hand before she can think a second thought. Nicky smiles that smile she has only just discovered and they dance their way dramatically back to Joe and Andy. The wine bottle is somehow back in Nicky’s hand as they go.

He’s very good, Nile realizes with glee as they dance together. His hands, respectful always, push and pull her to the rhythm. When she pushes back, he reciprocates in motion. They weave between Joe and Andy, including them and intercepting in equal measure. Joe spins Andy and catches Nile from Nicky who pairs with Andy just long enough for them both to steal Nile back from Joe.

“You are a gorgeous dancer,” Nicky compliments and Nile is thrilled. Weightless and joyful like she hasn’t been since her first death. There have been moments of peace and levity of course, but nothing like the feeling she has as Nicky drops her body into a low dip. Even drunk, his hands on her are solid and safe and she knows he would never let her fall. So she laughs the laugh her mother loves most, high and free. 

Nicky brings her back to her feet and his hand is behind her neck. He kisses her. Quickly but fully on her lips.

“900 years!” Nile hears Joe yell as Nicky hugs Nile to his chest. “I have been with this man for 900 years and yet the time has come for my heart to abandon me!”

Joe has danced Andy over to them now, his eyes so full of mirth and teasing that Nile can’t help but giggle as Nicky kisses her check again. Joe moans in mock agony, releasing Andy as he falls to his knees in front of Nicky. 

“Nicolo, if you must leave me-”

“Yusuf, please-”

“Then at least I am left with the knowledge that you go with someone worthy of you,” Joe continues, winking at Nile before poking his finger into her side. Andy rescues her, dragging her back to the couch as Nicky threads his fingers through Joe’s to pull him back to his feet. 

“You are a ridiculous man,” Nicky admonishes and they laugh together as they kiss, open and achingly sweet. They slow in time to the music as it changes again into a ballad. And just like that, Joe and Nicky are wrapped up in each other’s arms again, content and happy, swaying gently and tenderly. 

And now, Nile finds, she must look away. 

Andy must have felt the same as Nile catches her looking pointedly as her instead.

“It is their anniversary,” Andy says softly.

“Like… a wedding anniversary?” Niles asks and checks the date on her phone so she can file it away to memory.

“Honestly?” Andy says with a little quirk of her brow, “I’m not sure. It might be one of their weddings.”

“One of?”

“It could be the anniversary of the first time they gave each other rings,” Andy continued thoughtfully as if trying to remember for sure. “It could be… shit, Booker will know. He always knows.”

“It is the anniversary of the first time they woke up together after killing each other for the last time,” Booker tells her later that night as they clear the many, many empty bottles of wine from the kitchen counter. “It is the one that Nicky treasures most.”

“Yeah?” Nile prompts; Booker has always taken the bait easiest when it comes to her questions.

“He says he spent a month researching old calendars until he was sure of the correct date,” Booker smiles. “It was that important to him.”

“Why? Because that’s when they fell in love?”

“No,” Booker laughs. “No, that is another anniversary all together. This one… this is when Nicky believes his life truly began. Though I think that makes it more of a birthday than an anniversary.”

“Ugh,” Nile says, but it’s a happy noise. “They’re that couple.”

“You are just realizing this now?” Booker groans in solidarity and then sighs as he picks up another bottle. “Nicky, you lush.”

“I can’t believe he was actually drunk,” Nile finds herself laughing. Again. “I can’t believe we can actually still get drunk. You made it sound like it can’t happen.”

“Believe me, Nile. If you consider the amount of alcohol it takes to affect us, Nicky will regret his decisions come morning.”

Nile isn’t sure she believes him until she sees Nicky the next day, wearing sunglasses and a black hoodie indoors as he drinks coffee straight from the pot. Nile laughs so hard she sees stars and Nicky can only groan, covering his ears slowly. But then Joe brings Nicky a thick slice of buttered bread and kisses him and the smile Nicky gives him… it’s not just the wine Nicky was and maybe still is drunk with, she realizes. It’s happiness.


End file.
